1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to conduit joints capable of compensating for thermal motion in high pressure and high temperature impingement pipelines, and more particularly to conduit joint structures having guided sealing rings arranged in annular grooves.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of pipe joints or connections are known which are meant to guarantee that a seal is maintained between two pipe ends, even with changes in length of the pipeline members as a result of temperature differences, such that the tightness of the pipeline is not impaired.
German Published Application No. 1,813,260 and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 3,549,178 disclose joining pipes which enable the compensation for motion due to thermal variations in the pipeline at right angles, as well as parallel to the intermediate gasket surfaces between the pipe sections. This device is, however, very complicated and expensive to construct and not easy to operate. As opposed to the direct connecting of the pipe sections, a coupling member is provided for. This coupling member is joined to one of the pipe sections by a clamping member and to the other structural member through a support member which supports at the same time a further structural member on the second pipe section. By this further structural member the support member is held in contact with the first structural member. A pressure member is connected further with the coupling member and supports itself on said member.
A further pipe joint is described in German Published Application No. 1,746,249 and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,972 wherein radial and axial movement are coequally permitted by the joint construction. This device consists of two coaxial sleeves of which the inner engages one pipe member through a bayonet coupling and the outer is joined to the sleeve-like, extended other pipe member through a similar connection. Circular grooves carrying rings are arranged between the two coaxial sleeves. The rings seal the sleeves against one another. Each sleeve can slide relative to the part of the pipe with which it is not joined through the bayonet connection and is made tight to this part through the assembly of the sealing rings. These pipe connections require relatively large amounts of space so that it is suggested that the pipeline be narrowed down in the region of the joint. This would, however, provide for unfavorable results in the flow conditions inside the pipeline. A further deficiency of this pipe joint is that the pipeline is not fully sealed.